Long W/E Fun around Barrington Tops

Phew, you go away for a few nights and look what happens! Glad to see everyone had fun, for what it's worth, our little trip to Barrington Tops was very nice. Just fantastic all round, but more importantly - it's a great place to ride!

Saturday, Pratiwi did very well, I told here this would be, "Just like Terrey Hills":

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4089425

Oops

It was a very nice trail. Will do a proper write up on this one, and post some pics as they came out well. Annoyingly there was no view at the top of Mount Barrington (which is the first peak I have summited on a bike - albeit a tiny one). Well, there was I'm sure, but just too many trees in the way . From here I had wanted to ride along the edge of the plateau to Carey's Peak but time wasn't on our side so just returned the same way.

The good news is that Polblue trail, although marked as walking track is/was actually a freshly graded (in parts) firetrail and the start of Mt Barrington to Carey's Peak trail looked the same - should be easy riding. Although it sounds a bit dull, was anything but. Beautiful bushland and the trail had two distinct wheel ruts that were not at all deep but were separated by high enough grass to feel almost like sniggle (almost). Some good gradients and water bars in there too - fun both out and back.

Not bike related I'm afraid, but Sunday we did some bush walking:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4089426

This (Monday) morning I had planned to ride up Geales Ridge Road and then down to Jems Creek Road (via what I now know is called High Country Trail). Sadly the trail between Jems Creek and Geales Ridge turned out to be non-existent so just went to the end of Jems Creek & turned round. But that wasn't very long or challenging, so decided to ride the 425 vertical metres in 2.7Km that is High Country:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4089427

When I saw the profile, how I laughed! Cursing myself now for giving up just couple hundred metres short of the peak (walked 160m distance just short of it for a 'rest'), but after almost 30 mins slogging up a 16% average gradient the legs just wouldn't go any more. Damn, damn, damn! I know, when you look at it that way, doesn't seem so bad, so let's compare - The Oaks gate to helipad climb is a measily 4.5% average grade (around 250m in 5.51Km). Phew, OK, so can I feel just a tiny bit pleased about the effort now?

No? Thought not!